Parker-Hale breech construction - a cautionary tale.Early

[TFoley]

A warning - a Parker-Hale Whitworth rifle three-piece breech construction gets a fellow-shooter's rifle condemned as dangerously unshootable.

I got roped in to the conversation this morning at the range by fellow P-H Whitworth owner A. Like mine, his is an early model, with a less than 600 serial number. It had a history of poor ignition, not improved either by the use of a new nipple, or by careful cleaning. He took it to a well-known gunsmith in the [UK] Midlands who had the skill and capacity to remove the breech plug, What he found inside was a nightmare. The main breech plug had a threaded insert that formed the actual breech into the rifle barrel. It seems to have been removed, mangled and cross-threaded, and forced back into the breech plug, not only misaligning the flash channel, but leaving space behind that, if filled with powder, may well have become a lethal pipe-bomb. The gun was returned to a very sad A, who was told, as if he needed telling, to hang it on the wall. Has this happened to anybody else here?

 

[Nobade]

Sad to hear. I wonder if there is any way to determine if that was done by the factory or something done later for some reason. Seems like a talented machinist could repair that or possibly make a new one so it's not a wall hanger.

 

[TFoley]

Sad to hear. I wonder if there is any way to determine if that was done by the factory or something done later for some reason. Seems like a talented machinist could repair that or possibly make a new one so it's not a wall hanger.

The gunsmith concerned, who, BTW, is one of the UK's most respected target rifle builders, seems to be convinced that even he could not effect a repair that would satisfy the gentlemen of the Birmingham Proof House.. Here in UK it is illegal to tamper with a breeching in order to make it sellable. I have no doubt that he could fully manufacture an entire breech plug in one piece - the matter of cost then enters into it, and it must have been deemed uneconomical to attempt to go that route. Again, only an authorised person can make a pressure-bearing part of a firearm, like a breech plug, so it's not a matter of taking it to a local machine shop to get the job done.

Perhaps Feltwad might offer advice/comment here.

 

[Nobade]

Makes sense, I forget you operate under different rules than we do in the US. That sure is unfortunate for the owner.